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Kosovo: Criminal
Justice System Fails Victims
May 30, 2006 - (Human Watch) The
criminal justice system continues to fail victims in Kosovo, despite
almost seven years of international administration, Human Rights
Watch said in a new report released today. Kosovo’s future
status is currently the subject of intense negotiations mediated
by the international community. The 74-page report, “Not on
the Agenda: The Continuing Failure to Address Accountability in
Kosovo Post-March 2004,” focuses on the criminal justice response
to the March 2004 violence in the province.
At that time, widespread rioting
across the province, involving more than 50,000 people, left hundreds
of minorities injured and thousands displaced from their homes.“Right
now, accountability for past crimes isn’t on the agenda for
Kosovo,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director
at Human Rights Watch. “But resolving Kosovo’s status
without fixing the justice system will poison its future.”
Progress on prosecutions related
to the March riots has been limited, despite being given priority
in the justice system. More than two years later, only 426 individuals
have been charged in connection with the violence, mostly for minor
offenses such as theft, with just over half resulting in final decisions.
The criminal justice response to
the March 2004 violence provides a useful yardstick by which to
measure progress on accountability efforts in the province generally.
After almost seven years of international administration, the authorities
should have had sufficient time to address the shortcomings in the
legal framework, the police, the prosecuting authorities and the
courts. Moreover, in the wake of the March violence, there was an
unequivocal commitment from the international community that those
responsible would be brought to justice. KoYet the report analyzes
the failure to bring to justice many of those responsible for the
violence. Key factors include:
- Inadequate preparation and training for the
impact of major reforms to the criminal justice system introduced
three weeks after the March riots. For example, the reforms
gave prosecutors a central role in investigations, a shift in
responsibility for which none of the players were adequately
prepared.
- The creation of a special, separate international
police operation to investigate March cases, which was inadequate,
de-linked from the mainstream investigation process and ultimately
failed.
- Ineffective policing, including lack of follow-up,
poor coordination between international and national police,
and inadequate collaboration with prosecutors.
- Inadequate witness protection measures.
- Inadequate oversight and prioritization of
the criminal justice system by the United Nations administration
in Kosovo.
“No one should pretend that
building the rule of law in Kosovo is easy,” said Cartner.
“But there are plenty of basic steps – like making sure
that prosecutors are properly trained and institutions work together
– that can make a big difference today.”
The inadequate criminal justice
response to violence in March 2004 symbolizes one of the greatest
problems faced by Kosovo today: rampant impunity for crime, particularly
where it has a political or ethnic dimension. The track record on
investigating and prosecuting war crimes and inter-ethnic crimes
prior to March 2004 is also extremely poor.
The result is the continuation of
a cycle of impunity and the reinforcement of the belief in all communities
in Kosovo – majority and minority alike – that the criminal
justice system is neither reliable nor in the service of the people.
Minorities, particularly Kosovar Serbs, have less faith than ever
that they can live safely in Kosovo.
“Not on the Agenda”
also highlights the absence of an effective outreach strategy to
inform affected communities about the outcome of investigations
and prosecutions arising from the March 2004 violence, and the lack
of transparency in the system. This makes it difficult for people
to obtain basic information about the outcome of criminal cases
and for groups to monitor the system as a whole.
The report calls on key actors in
Kosovo, including the United Nations, the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe, the police and the provisional government
in Kosovo, to take immediate steps to tackle the criminal justice
system. These include: ensuring proper oversight of the courts;
developing an action plan to establish a judicial police branch
to work directly with investigative prosecutors; increasing collaboration
between international and national police, prosecutors and judges;
and establishing a more effective witness protection system.
The report urges the six-nation
Contact Group and the European Union to prioritize accountability
in their policies toward Kosovo, including by ensuring that a functioning
criminal justice system is accepted by all parties as integral to
the successful resolution of Kosovo’s status, and providing
the material support necessary to enable the creation of an effective
system for witness relocation and protection.
From: http://www.hrw.org
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